A research centre under Vietnam's health ministry is in talks with Russia to produce the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in the country, local media reported. The Russian partner would initially transfer semi-finished products along with instructions to the Ministry of Health's Polyvac Centre to produce around 50 million doses a year, the online newspaper VnExpress reported, without identifying the partner.
An official at Polyvac confirmed to Reuters that the talks were underway, but declined to give further details.
In a later stage, Polyvac would produce the vaccine from scratch, the report said, citing an unnamed Polyvac source.
The report said Vietnam was also in talks to buy the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine from Russia for domestic use before any domestic production of the shot. In March, Vietnam approved Sputnik V for use against Covid-19, the second coronavirus shot to be approved in the Southeast Asian country after the AstraZeneca vaccine. - Reuters
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